Lawrence has struggled for many years to make a go of a decent Human Rights Commission. It appears as none of the past administrations has taken that seriously by not appointing members to that board, the failure to appoint a director (even though it was approved by the City Council and funding was set aside) which led to its demise.
Yes, the Human Rights Commission has disappeared. It is true that they were the subject of criticisms in this column quite often because they seemed to be aligned with the administrations under which they served and not necessarily watching for the interests of the public.
Our main complaint was that they never advertised to the public when their meetings were to take place, they would regularly change the dates and meeting places and people had no idea how to present their concerns about discrimination on housing, employment, justice, police, etc.
In fact, former police Chief John J. Romero attended all their meetings (if they met at all) which qualified as “secret meetings” not giving the public an opportunity to bring up the police brutality cases on the carpet. In the end, the Human Rights Commission honored Chief Romero upon leaving the city with a plaque for his cooperation, disregarding the many residents abused at the hands of his officers.
Their board never pressured the mayors enough to give them the support required to properly investigate cases until it fell by the wayside due to lack of interests to serve in an inefficient group.
Now, the recently formed Commission on Disability is following the same disappearing act. They started out with a group of very qualified volunteers that is quickly losing steam with the resignation of two members feeling frustrated for its inactivity. In his letter of resignation, Commissioner Joseph Couture wrote about the limited support from the administration and even having their information updated on the city’s website was requested over one year ago and no response.
That reminds us that several years ago we had a Cable Television Advisory Commission which was abolished immediately when the Lawrence Community Access Television was created. LCAT does not give access to the community and the public has no place to present its grievances.
Our take on this is that keeping the community ignorant and without resources is the way for all administrations to look good. Unless we demand, we will never get the kind of city we deserve.
